Rigging a Low Poly Character in Maya 2018

Name: Rigging a Low Poly Character in Maya 2018
Rating: 4.3 (39 reviews)

Create a simple character rig, bind and paint weights on a low polygon character

Created byEric Kunzendorf

Last updated 1/2018

English

What you'll learn

Rig biped characters of their own

Course content

1 section • 40 lectures • 4h 54m total length

Introducing the Rig Features8:18
Creating the Spine8:24
Build a spine and head joint chain in Maya 2018, using side and front views, the joint tool, and an organized outliner hierarchy to rig a low-poly character.
Leg Placement5:23
Creating the Left Arm Skeleton6:04
Placing Hand and Finger Joints8:48
Joint Orientation Setup and Orienting the Spine8:28
Orient the spine joints in Maya 2018 using the Comet Joint Orient script, setting the aim axis to x and world up to y for consistent rotations.
Orienting the Arms8:51
Orienting the Legs and Forearms6:41
Orient the pelvis and legs to align joint axes for a stable ik chain; create a forearm form joint and use a point constraint to align wrist and elbow.
Creating and Naming IK Handles5:59
Adding Spine Groups7:52
Creating the Head and Collar7:53
Editing Suffixes and Parenting Constraining7:09
Making Foot and Knee Controls5:42
Inverse Grouping the Foot8:09
Create and organize foot groupings for a Maya 2018 low poly rig, including heel raise and toe tap groups, then attach IK handles under the appropriate groups.
Connecting the Controls Part 18:08
Connecting the Controls Part 26:24
Creating the Hip Rig4:48
Rigging the Collar and Shoulder6:19
Constraining the Arm IK6:46
Constraining the Forearm Joint4:01
Making the Finger Controls7:43
Reordering and Connecting Attributes7:48
Connecting Finger Attributes7:17
Export, duplicate, and import a finger control in Maya 2018 to connect finger attributes to the wrist via point constraints, rotation mappings, and direct finger spreads.
Set Driven Key for Spread and Cup Attributes6:06
Set Driven Keys for the Global Fist7:31
Connecting the Right Side with the Node Editor7:09
Connect the right side controls with the node editor and map finger joints to rotate axes, using unit conversions to build a Maya rig.
Connecting the Right Side Cup, Spread and Fist Attributes8:00
Connect the right cup, spread, and fist controls in Maya 2018 by setting rotate X constraints driven by the cup joint and mirroring the setup on the left.
Creating Space Switching for the Arm7:14
Creating Space Switching for the Elbow7:33
Space Switching the Feet8:05
Creating and Connecting the Master Scale Attribute6:06
Face Control, Clean Up and Adding the CurvyAdd to the Neck8:40
Create a face control constrained to the head joint, then clean up the rig by locking attributes and add a curvy neck control driven by a multiply/divide node.
Binding Manlo to the Skeleton8:30
Create a "Weight Dance for the Body" Part 19:48
Creating the "Weight Dance" for the Body Part 28:02
Apply a Full-Body Blend Shape5:50
Painting Weights on the Shoulder8:17
Painting Weights on the Arm and Wrist8:43
Paint and mirror skin weights across the yz plane to create symmetry, then use the component editor to balance elbow and wrist influences for a smooth, practical rig.
Painting Weights on the Fingers8:01
Painting Weights for the Foot and Conclusion8:01
Paint skin weights for the feet and mirror weights across the body, then refine hip and ankle controls to improve deformation; test with a walk cycle.

Requirements

You should have a basic familiarity with Maya's hotbox interface.
You should be able to distinguish between world and object space
You should have a basic knowledge of hierarchies.
You should understand the relationship between an objects Transform node and its Shape node

Description

Rigging can be a very excruciatingly technical step in creating animatable characters. This class aims to present a step-by-step guide to creating a functional character rig that will allow the animator to deliver a believable performance. Being able to rig characters from scratch empowers the animator to be able to create characters of their own free from the constraints of automatic rigging solutions. Make no mistake, such solutions are great timesavers, but they can tend to limit the animator.

We will create this rig using Manlo, the character we modeled, UV mapped and surfaced in Model a Low-Polygon Character in Maya 2018, so if you are new to Maya, you should at least have that course under your belt. Also, please note that this is an intermediate class. The author assumes you have a functional understanding of basic Maya tools as the move, rotate, and scale tools, shelf and tool locations and using Maya's hotbox to access them; concepts like X, Y, and Z movement and axes, object vs. world space movement and rotations and hierarchies. The author will address these ideas in terms of rigging characters, however, they may be unfamiliar to beginners.

That said, at the end of this course, you will have both a rigged character that you can use in your own animations AND the skill set to create animated characters of your very own!

Who this course is for:

Anyone who wants to rig 3D modeled characters in Maya.